Pickle 1999 - 2009

Journal - 30 December 2009
Originally uploaded by Sarah__M

Our 10-year-old English bull terrier, Pickle, died on Tuesday, 29th December 2009. She had heart problems and arthritis for much of her life, and a litany of other illnesses over the years. She was on about five different kinds of medication at the end. Until the last few months she loved going for walks so she could meet people. Food and people were her main interests, though she would occasionally get playful with a dropped glove or hat. She was my lap dog in the evenings in front of the television. The reference photo for this journal sketch was taken in October 2008 at our local park. I imagine she's in a place like that now, rolling in the grass and chasing after everyone she sees.

Journal Text (in case you can't read my writing):
"Our English bull terrier Pickle died yesterday, gently sent to sleep by her vet. Though she was often stubborn and frustrating (as bull terriers are) and her health was poor for most of her life, she was a beautiful dog who loved everyone and brought a smile to anyone who met her. I'll miss you, Pickle."

Rare Christmas Snow (though it will probably be gone by Christmas)

We don't have snow very often here in Berkshire in Southern England, but nature has been generous to us in the last week. We have had two big snowfalls with little or no melting in between. There has been a lot of snow in different parts of the UK, and of course it has caused travel chaos for a lot of people, but since we haven't had to do much driving we've just been enjoying it!

Click on any of the photos to see a larger view on my flickr page.

Our local park becomes a winter wonderland in the snow.






I've tried to make sure the bird feeders are replenished throughout the day and have tried to keep some ice-free water in the bird bath, but it hasn't been easy!

Different Strokes From Different Folks Challenge

This is my first time taking part in the Different Strokes From Different Folks challenge. The photo is of the Jefferson Memorial (Washington, D.C.) at night. The challenge is to paint the scene with your own interpretation. Here is my effort:


Click on the picture to see a larger version on Flickr. I used my new fountain pen (Lamy Safari) with Noodler's eternal black ink, followed by Winsor & Newton watercolours. I'm fairly pleased with the result aside from the streaky sky, and I would like the trees to be darker. I'm very happy with the Noodler's ink. I can paint over it after just a few moments and it seems pretty waterproof on all the papers I've tried it on so far.

Another new "toy" I've been playing with are a small set of Tombow brush pens in various shades of gray and black. Somewhere I saw someone using them for small value sketches, which I thought was a great idea. This was a quick value sketch for the above picture:

I'm not sure how much I'll use the Tombow pens but they are fun, and I think doing this type of sketch more often would be valuable for me.

Christmas cards

I haven't sent Christmas cards for a number of years. My husband and I have sort of opted out of Christmas. This year, however, I decided to send a few hand-painted Christmas cards. My first attempts were done using those purpose-made watercolour cards. I was so worried about ruining them, however, that I didn't enjoy it and ended up not liking the results much. So they went in the bin.

I decided to just start painting some small card-sized paintings on larger pieces of ordinary watercolour paper, not worrying about how they turned out, so I could just use the ones I liked. This was a lot more fun! Here are the results. I like some more than others, and I didn't use all of them. I had fun doing it though, and it was nice to be able to put something of myself into the cards I sent to family members.

From the photo "Coal tit - Switzerland" by crackers93

From the photo "Great Tit (Parus major)" by Max xx

From a photo by mustcreate in the Wetcanvas.com reference image library

From a photo by lisilk in the Wetcanvas.com reference image library

From a photo by PETERH in the Wetcanvas.com reference image library

From a photo by Dilettante Dave in the Wetcanvas.com reference image library

From the photo "Robin" by thetelf

From a photo by Ceiliog in the Wetcanvas.com reference image library

From a photo by Yorky in the Wetcanvas.com reference image library

From my imagination :-)

Landscape sketching practice

I'm trying to learn to do simple ink and watercolour sketches of landscapes. Here are a couple of practice sketches from photos. The first one is from a reference photo on Wetcanvas.com (uploaded by ICanDoIt) and the second from my own photo. Simplifying while still keeping interesting composition and colours is proving a challenge.

Plein air sketching

Off and on I've been trying to do plein air ink and watercolour sketching. So far I haven't been exactly ecstatic with the results, but I'm getting better and that's what matters to me. One of the reasons I want to improve (and be less frustrated) is so that I can go out sketching while my husband does his macro and bird photography. We are lucky to have several lovely parks nearby with some beautiful scenery - lots of sketching potential!

I'm still working on a painting kit so I have a convenient setup including paint, brush(es), water, etc. When I sketch outdoors I'm usually sitting on a walkstool with all my stuff in my lap. I've got my eye on the Winsor Newton Field Plus box. I've got the pocket box but those clipon water pots look good. I've been using a waterbrush but just got a retractable travel brush. I used it for the first time last weekend and found it a lot easier to control the paint and water, but I had to set the water pot on the ground and it wasn't very convenient. Here's my effort from our walk in Dinton Pastures on Saturday morning.

EveryDay Matters Challenge #185 - Draw a Cat

I've never had a cat and generally I'm not too fond of them, being a bird lover. One of my pet peeves is neighbourhood cats coming into our garden and lying in wait for the birds at our feeders. So far there haven't been any murders (that I know of), but anytime I see a cat in the garden I chase it away if I can. I guess it's too much to hope that they'll learn they're not welcome here!

I don't hate cats, really. Sometimes they can be pretty, or cute. I remember my grandmother's Burmese cats and how I was fascinated by them as a child. They were very aloof if they didn't know you, but I thought they were beautiful and mysterious.

This pencil drawing is based on a lovely Flickr photo by duluoz_cats.